Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down: Thumbs Down to my dismay!
Price Range: Avg. Price about R60 I think
Type: Finer things cafe/ Boutique apparel store
Crowd: 30’s Cape Town Promenade/ Working crowd
Service: 3/10
Day Of the Week: Thursday
Time: 8:30pm
Address:  30 Hudson Street, De Waterkant
Unique Aspects:

This review refers specifically to the Thursday night burger dinner service although I believe the cafe runs throughout the day serving other food and drink.

It pains me to write this as I was so highly expectant of a great dining experience at The Loading Bay and the reputation I had come to hear about from others had me eager to book for the infamous  “grass fed beef patty” burger dinner for a good couple of months.

What could go wrong? Craft beers, a one-meal only restaurant that specializes in this meal specifically so as to be able to make it perfectly, followed by Lindt chocolate milkshakes certainly sounded like the type of place where I would feel at home – unfortunately the feeling of “home” was but a distant reality.

The absolute route of the dis-satisfaction was down to one thing, service! Having no table to sit at and being questioned as to whether we had in fact made a booking, followed by a good 20 minute wait before any sort of drinks order was taken, followed by another 20 minute wait before the mess of a milkshake all over the table was taken care of led to a pretty unpleasant dining experience I am afraid.

The food I will admit was not bad – certainly not great, but not bad. I do not feel that The Loading Bay lived up to its “one meal specialist” menu on the night.

This said, going to a restaurant is an experience and when one facet of this experience is poor, it unfortunately brings down with it all of the others. This lead to the slightest imperfections in the meal, which there unfortunately were, being amplified 10 fold – leading to an overall disgruntled and un-impressed bunch of diners.

As said above, it pains me to write this as I would have really liked to share the experience I have heard so many attest to. Perhaps I will give it another try at some point, but I am not sure that that point is going to be anytime soon.

Website: http://www.loadingbay.co.za/cafe/